The archetypal ecocide: is environmental devastation in the Alberta oil sands an international crime?

The Alberta oil sands operations have long been referred to as ‘ecocidal’ in view of the environmental devastation they cause. Yet the oil sands operations continue to grow, with the rewards, risks and damages provoking polarised reactions. Government and corporate industry sources highlight the oil sands as ‘an immense economic driver’ and ‘a secure source of energy for the world’. Critics, including many Indigenous peoples in the region, protest the severe environmental destruction wrought by the extractive operations as criminal acts of ‘ecocide’. In this article, we apply the contemporary proposed definition of the international crime of ecocide to the Alberta oil sands operations. While there has been a wealth of comment on this definition of the crime, there are fewer attempts to apply it to real life examples of environmental destruction. This article builds on this work, using a detailed application of the proposed definition to the oil sands operations both to highlight the ecological devastation they cause and to explore some of the definition’s nuances, revealing areas which may need more thought.